CAW joined with 10 other environmental organizations, including environmental justice activists, in sending a letter to Natural Resources Agency Secretary John Laird demanding that state officials rescind the recent approval of a proposed waste-to-energy plant for inclusion in the state's landmark renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The letter criticized the agency for blatantly misrepresenting statutes requiring such plants to emit no pollutants to qualify as "gasification" facilities eligible for renewable power credit.

"This interpretation of the definition of gasification is clearly contradictory to the letter and spirit of the statute and needs to be withdrawn posthaste," the activists say in the letter to Laird.

Approval of the project based on a false reading of the law could set a precedent for many other RPS credit applications. The environmental coalitions are prepared to sue the state if the agency does not rescind the approvals.